You could almost hear the voice of Graeme Garden. "This is the small town of Linyola. And this is Bojan, the schoolboy who leads a remarkable double life. For when Bojan eats a Bollicao an amazing transformation occurs. "Bojan is boy wonder! Ever alert for the call to action!" The son of a Serbian footballer and a Catalan nurse who met when former Red Star Belgrade player Bojan Krkic senior suffered an injury winding down his career at Mollerusa, Bojan Krikic junior was a child prodigy. The perfect combination of little boy and big star, innocent and brilliant, as wholesome as he was awesome – a cartoon character one newspaper, and not even a Catalan one, depicted with a cape, his pants on the outside and a B on his chest.

Only he wasn't. Not quite.

Bojan joined Barcelona at the age of eight, his team-mates calling him Bollicao after the chocolate-stuffed sweet bread roll that is stuffed into packed lunchboxes across the country, and scored 895 goals at junior level, plus 14 with Barça B. A scurrying little striker with instinctive finishing, he was joint top scorer at the 2006 Under-17 European Championships and was leading marksman at the tournament the following year. Likened to Raúl by Jorge Valdano, the man who gave the current captain his Real Madrid debut, he was described as a "treasure" by Frank Rijkaard. At the Under-17 World Cup in 2007, he was top scorer but ended it in tears after missing the final through suspension. Without him, Spain lost.

He made his debut for the Barcelona first team aged 16 years and 26 days. The night before his Champions League bow, he was busy reading Plato, cramming for his exams. Against Villarreal in October 2007, he became the youngest player ever to score for Barcelona. He was 17 years and 51 days old. He had played for Spain Under-21s at the age of 16 as the Spanish and Serbian national teams fought over him and finished last season, his debut season in the Barcelona first team, with 10 goals in 14 starts. One magazine described him as the Revelation of the Year; he was Barça's "great hope". Bojan is boy wonder! Ever alert for the call to action!

It had all happened so fast. Too fast. There were concerns about his father and the role he was playing in a conflict brewing between the Giovani Dos Santos and Bojan camps, one not fuelled by the players but one felt by them. The biggest concern, though, was Bojan's psyche. Pressure was being heaped on very young shoulders. He'd gone from a 16-year-old inhabiting one world to a 17-year-old living somewhere completely different. "Overnight, I couldn't even walk down the street," he admitted. "I couldn't go to a birthday party or to the cinema."

Being Barcelona's great hope during a disastrous season hardly helped. Nor did finding himself in the middle of a club versus country row. Or, in fact, the crusade over Raúl's inclusion. It's one thing getting into the Spain squad, another getting into it ahead of the country's shining knight. Bojan was called up in February 2008. He would have been the youngest Spain player ever, at 17 years, five months and nine days. But he suffered a dizzy spell and pulled out. It had all the hallmarks of an anxiety attack. Last summer he asked not to be taken to the European Championship, admitting that he was "physically and emotionally shattered". Without him, Spain won the tournament.

When he did finally play for the national team, now just turned 18, in September you could sense the tension. He came on for 10 minutes in Albacete and played like his legs were on the wrong way round; he could barely stand up, he couldn't control the ball. The best thing you could say about his debut was that he had got it out of the way; the worst thing you could say was that maybe he wasn't going to make it. Maybe he just wasn't tough enough. Maybe he wasn't enough of a bastard. Some fans began to whistle him for "snubbing" Spain. Others chanted "retard" at him.

This season, things hardly improved. Rijkaard always insisted that Bojan's second season would be harder. His replacement as manager Pep Guardiola was not pleased at his refusal to return to the B team last season when Guardiola was coach. And it is natural for a kid to get few chances. Especially when Leo Messi, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o are ahead of him. Besides, Bojan had scored seven across the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. But there was no escaping the fact that his nearly naked dash round the mixed zone was perhaps his most notable Camp Nou appearance. He had started just one league game and played barely 300 minutes. Without scoring.

Until 10.20pm last night. Barcelona visited Almería only three points ahead of Madrid, who'd defeated Athletic Bilbao 5–2 on Saturday. The pressure was on. Henry and Eto'o weren't. Bojan was. It was just his second start – in a crucial match. Barcelona were dominating – rarely can an away team have so completely hogged the ball – but they were not getting through and the Boy Wonder was anonymous. The clock showed 51 minutes when Guardiola sent Eto'o to warm up and Barça fans bellowed, "About bloody time". Suddenly Messi dashed through, his shot hit the post, Bojan collected the rebound and scored. Three minutes later an absurdly intricate move worked the ball to Bojan again. It hardly mattered that the finish was a fluke deflection, it was 2–0 and the celebration from the players showed they knew what it meant. For Bojan and the team.

Job done, the 18-year-old departed to a round of applause, a huge hug from the boss and the front page of all the Catalan papers. "Bojan the Great" cheered El Mundo Deportivo. "I'm really pleased; the goal will help him," said Guardiola. "I needed it," admitted Bojan. After a dip in form during which Madrid clawed back eight points, Barcelona have refound themselves. And maybe Bojan has too.

Week 27 Results and Talking Points

• Málaga played Sevilla without Duda and Lola, both of whom are on loan from Sevilla and have clauses in their contract that prevent them facing their paymasters. Last night, Alvaro Negredo deliberately sought a yellow card that means he will serve his suspension next week against Real Madrid – when a clause in his contract means he would not have been able to play anyway. And he's not even on loan. Should referees refuse to give out those cards and, more importantly, shouldn't crapping-yourself-clauses be banned? Surely they adulterate the league?

• Almería are in only their second season in the top flight. Last night they played Barcelona. Ticket price hikes made the most expensive seat €270 (£249) and they declared it "(media) día de club" – (half) day of the club, a brilliant plan by which even season-ticket holders have to buy their seats. Hey presto, only 9,300 turned up. No atmosphere, no edge, no pressure on their visitors and virtually no gate receipts. When will they ever learn? Meanwhile, 2,000 Depor fans travel to Gijón. At last, with the help of Sporting, supporters are realising how much fun away days can be. Now, if someone would only tell them when the games are going to be, maybe they'll keep it up.

•Atlético Madrid were brilliant against Villarreal and are now just three points off a Champions League place. The same Champions League place that they blew by not playing their top scorer, Diego Forlan, against Porto last week.

• They're still doing their nut over the referee in Bilbao. Real Madrid's visit to Athletic produced 13 yellow cards and three reds – two of them for people on the Athletic bench. Amazingly, the 13 yellows didn't include Gabriel Heinze. Or indeed, many of his team-mates. Fran Yeste was sent off for pushing Iker Casillas – a red card helped, so say the Basques, by a spot of play-acting. Casillas was pushed in the chest and held his face. "The perfect son-in-law has been unmasked," bitched Athletic's website. "Sadly, it was like old times [as in Franco's old times]," they sobbed. Madrid have now won 11 in 12 league matches.